Young Jack strides out again for charity

Young North Devon 'Lockdown Legend Jack Hopkins has fetched out his fund-raising boots again to support a national  charity.

Jack made the headlines in October of 2021 when he went walking to raise money for the NHSÂ during Lockdown. His efforts were recognised with the Medal of Honour in the British Citizen Youth Awards last year.

Now the seven-year-old from Northam has taken on a new challenge of running 100km in just 100 days for The Tony Hudgell Foundation.Â

Tony Hudgell is an inspirational seven year-old who to have both his badly damaged legs amputated after being cruelly abused by his biological parents when he was just a month old.

The Foundation was set up enhance the lives of children who have been affected by physical, emotional, or psychological abuse.Â

Tony, his adoptive family and MP Tom Tugendhat were also behind a successful 'Tony's Law'  campaign calling for stiffer and longer jail sentences for child abusers.

Appledore Primary school pupil Jack faced the onset of the first pandemic lockdown along with the rest of the nation. He soon became increasingly fed up and lost his motivation to do his schoolwork.

But he knew that he would like to do something positive, so decided to raise money and help the NHS.Â

Wanting to keep fit, and healthy too, he decided to walk 5km twice a week. Initially setting a target of raising £100, Jack went on to walk 50km in just five weeks, raising over £1,550.Â

Now Jack is running one kilometre every day for 100 days to raise money for the foundation, an extraordinary challenge for such a young chap in the cold, wet and dark evenings of winter. Â

He has already completed 60 days, so over halfway now. You can donate to Jack’s amazing effort by visiting JustGiving 100 days for Tony. Jack has already comfortably surpassed his target of £2,000 with the current figure at £3,042, and rising. Â

His runs will come to an end on February 23 and his final run will be at Affinity Bideford at 4.45pm. Here he will do his final 1K, followed by a generously donated party in WOW for his class mates!Â